Rightmove profits up 7.7% to £259 million despite downturn in housing market

01 March 2024 , 10:21

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Rightmove has reported a rise in revenues and profits despite a fall in property sales last year (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

Rightmove, the online platform for estate agents, has announced that it managed to increase both its revenue and profit last year.

The company said it had increased its revenue by about 10% to £364. 3 million. Rightmove was able to generate more revenues mainly because customers were able to upgrade to new products and packages.

Its pre-tax profit went up 7.7% to £259. 8 million. This is even though people spent less time looking for houses as mortgage rates went up. The average revenue made from each advertiser went up by 9% and last year the company got around £1,431 per month from its customers. It says the average advertiser will pay another £100-£110 more this year.

However, potential house buyers that estate agents use Rightmove to reach actually spent less time on the platform. In total, people spent about 15.4 billion minutes on the site, that's around 257 million hours, or 29,000 years. That's less than the 16.3 billion in 2022.

House sales in the UK also went down last year from 1. 2 million in 2022 to 1 million in 2023. Earlier this week, Zoopla predicted that sales would go back up to 1.1 million in 2024. This happened as mortgage prices went up when the Bank of England increased its base interest rate to try to control inflation.

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Some estate agents also left Rightmove during the year, with membership going down 1% to 18,785, a drop of 229. The company expects customer numbers to go down again this year as the economic climate stays uncertain. "In a year of economic uncertainty, consumers continued to trust Rightmove as the place to turn to help them make their move," said chief executive Johan Svanstrom.

"Customers were able to choose from an expanded, more sophisticated product suite, to continue to drive business results in a changing market environment. We reshaped our strategy during 2023, setting out a plan to further digitise the property sector, expand our business, stretch our brand and accelerate the financial performance long term."

"We are looking forward to 2024 with confidence and to delivering further value to all stakeholders on our platform, progressing the ambitious Rightmove strategy."

Lawrence Matheson